Hippolyte Adolphe Taine toured the Pyrenees and wrote about his trip through the mountains in 1875. Written in several “books,” Taine presents part travelogue, part history, and part impressionist descriptions of the many places he passed, describing everything from cabbages to architecture, to breezes. It’s a rather thorough work, very readable, and somewhat instructive. It is in a singular point, however, that I find a bit of wisdom we could all use.
Describing “landscapes” in Chapter IV of the first book, Taine says, “I have determined to find some pleasure in my walks; have come out alone by the first path that offered itself, and walk straight on as chance may lead. Provided you have noted two or three prominent points, you are sure of finding the way back.” He continues, “You can now enjoy the unexpected, and discover the country. To know where you are going and by what way is certain boredom; the imagination deflowers the landscape in advance.”* What’s he getting at?
Taine then writes of the imagination’s providing expectations: “It works and builds according to its own pleasure; then when you reach your goal all must be overturned; that spoils your disposition; the mind keeps its bent, and the beauty it has fancied prejudices that which it sees; it fails to understand this, because it is already taken up with another.” In other words, wait to see rather than imagine.
Imagination has played its role in spoiling the disposition of many: Individuals looking for that ideal mate, politicians looking for utopia, and vacationers looking for perfect recreation. For Taine, the despoiling came from his carrying images of the sea portrayed in paintings he had seen in Paris. From a chance viewpoint, he saw the sea not as it was, but rather as a disappointing and confined representation of an expansive and immense sea he had seen in those paintings. He looked for an ideal and failed to see the real. He missed the actual expansiveness and immensity because, as he writes, “the mind keeps its bent, and the beauty it has fancied prejudices that which it sees.”
Didn’t have the fun you expected to have in that last party or vacation? Didn’t have that perfect date last time out? You might have actually missed what you were looking for because of your expectations. There are landscapes aplenty for walks along life’s chance paths to unexpected sights and experiences. Don’t let “fancied beauty” prejudice your mind.
*Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, A Tour through the Pyrenees, trans. J. Safford Fiske, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1875. p. 139. Online at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44429/44429-h/44429-h.htm#link2HCH0002
Describing “landscapes” in Chapter IV of the first book, Taine says, “I have determined to find some pleasure in my walks; have come out alone by the first path that offered itself, and walk straight on as chance may lead. Provided you have noted two or three prominent points, you are sure of finding the way back.” He continues, “You can now enjoy the unexpected, and discover the country. To know where you are going and by what way is certain boredom; the imagination deflowers the landscape in advance.”* What’s he getting at?
Taine then writes of the imagination’s providing expectations: “It works and builds according to its own pleasure; then when you reach your goal all must be overturned; that spoils your disposition; the mind keeps its bent, and the beauty it has fancied prejudices that which it sees; it fails to understand this, because it is already taken up with another.” In other words, wait to see rather than imagine.
Imagination has played its role in spoiling the disposition of many: Individuals looking for that ideal mate, politicians looking for utopia, and vacationers looking for perfect recreation. For Taine, the despoiling came from his carrying images of the sea portrayed in paintings he had seen in Paris. From a chance viewpoint, he saw the sea not as it was, but rather as a disappointing and confined representation of an expansive and immense sea he had seen in those paintings. He looked for an ideal and failed to see the real. He missed the actual expansiveness and immensity because, as he writes, “the mind keeps its bent, and the beauty it has fancied prejudices that which it sees.”
Didn’t have the fun you expected to have in that last party or vacation? Didn’t have that perfect date last time out? You might have actually missed what you were looking for because of your expectations. There are landscapes aplenty for walks along life’s chance paths to unexpected sights and experiences. Don’t let “fancied beauty” prejudice your mind.
*Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, A Tour through the Pyrenees, trans. J. Safford Fiske, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1875. p. 139. Online at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44429/44429-h/44429-h.htm#link2HCH0002
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